Senate Hearings Before the Committee on Appropriations
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S. HRG. 110–735 Senate Hearings Before the Committee on Appropriations Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Fiscal Year 2009 110th CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION H.R. 7323/S. 3260 COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING COMMISSION CONSUMER PRODUCT SAFETY COMMISSION DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: COURT SERVICES AND OFFENDER SUPERVISION AGENCY FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION SELECTIVE SERVICE SYSTEM THE JUDICIARY Financial Services and General Government Appropriations, 2009 (H.R. 7323/S. 3260) S. HRG. 110–735 FINANCIAL SERVICES AND GENERAL GOVERNMENT APPROPRIATIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2009 HEARINGS BEFORE A SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS UNITED STATES SENATE ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION ON H.R. 7323/S. 3260 AN ACT MAKING APPROPRIATIONS FOR FINANCIAL SERVICES AND GENERAL GOVERNMENT FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING SEPTEMBER 30, 2009, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES Commodity Futures Trading Commission Consumer Product Safety Commission Department of the Treasury District of Columbia: Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency Federal Trade Commission Office of Management and Budget Securities and Exchange Commission Selective Service System The Judiciary Printed for the use of the Committee on Appropriations Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/congress/index.html U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 41–251 PDF WASHINGTON : 2009 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20402–0001 COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS ROBERT C. BYRD, West Virginia, Chairman DANIEL K. INOUYE, Hawaii THAD COCHRAN, Mississippi PATRICK J. LEAHY, Vermont TED STEVENS, Alaska TOM HARKIN, Iowa ARLEN SPECTER, Pennsylvania BARBARA A. MIKULSKI, Maryland PETE V. DOMENICI, New Mexico HERB KOHL, Wisconsin CHRISTOPHER S. BOND, Missouri PATTY MURRAY, Washington MITCH MCCONNELL, Kentucky BYRON L. DORGAN, North Dakota RICHARD C. SHELBY, Alabama DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California JUDD GREGG, New Hampshire RICHARD J. DURBIN, Illinois ROBERT F. BENNETT, Utah TIM JOHNSON, South Dakota LARRY CRAIG, Idaho MARY L. LANDRIEU, Louisiana KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON, Texas JACK REED, Rhode Island SAM BROWNBACK, Kansas FRANK R. LAUTENBERG, New Jersey WAYNE ALLARD, Colorado BEN NELSON, Nebraska LAMAR ALEXANDER, Tennessee CHARLES KIEFFER, Staff Director BRUCE EVANS, Minority Staff Director SUBCOMMITTEE ON FINANCIAL SERVICES AND GENERAL GOVERNMENT RICHARD J. DURBIN, Illinois, Chairman PATTY MURRAY, Washington SAM BROWNBACK, Kansas MARY L. LANDRIEU, Louisiana CHRISTOPHER S. BOND, Missouri FRANK R. LAUTENBERG, New Jersey RICHARD C. SHELBY, Alabama BEN NELSON, Nebraska WAYNE ALLARD, Colorado ROBERT C. BYRD, West Virginia (ex officio) THAD COCHRAN, Mississippi (ex officio) Professional Staff MARIANNE UPTON DIANA GOURLAY HAMILTON MARY DIETRICH (Minority) RACHEL JONES (Minority) Administrative Support ROBERT RICH LASHAWNDA SMITH (Minority) (II) CONTENTS WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5, 2008 Page Department of the Treasury ................................................................................... 1 WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2008 The judiciary ............................................................................................................ 41 WEDNESDAY, APRIL 16, 2008 Department of the Treasury: Internal Revenue Service ...................................... 97 WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30, 2008 Consumer Product Safety Commission .................................................................. 207 WEDNESDAY, MAY 7, 2008 Commodity Futures Trading Commission ............................................................. 253 Securities and Exchange Commission ................................................................... 349 WEDNESDAY, MAY 14, 2008 Federal Trade Commission ..................................................................................... 371 MATERIAL SUBMITTED SUBSEQUENT TO THE HEARINGS Office of Personnel Management ............................................................................ 409 Selective Service System ......................................................................................... 413 Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency for the District of Colum- bia .......................................................................................................................... 415 (III) FINANCIAL SERVICES AND GENERAL GOV- ERNMENT APPROPRIATIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2009 WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5, 2008 U.S. SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS, Washington, DC. The subcommittee met at 3 p.m., in room SD–138, Dirksen Sen- ate Office Building, Hon. Richard J. Durbin (chairman) presiding. Present: Senators Durbin, Brownback, and Allard. DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY STATEMENT OF HON. HENRY M. PAULSON, JR., SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR RICHARD J. DURBIN Senator DURBIN. Good afternoon, and I’m pleased to convene a series of hearings to examine fiscal year 2009 funding requests. Today we launch our lineup with the Department of the Treasury. Welcome, Secretary Henry Paulson, to the hearing room, along with any associates who would like to join in your testimony. I welcome my colleagues who will join me shortly, and others who may arrive. Although, this is a budget hearing for the Treas- ury, we’ve scheduled a separate hearing next month to devote par- ticular attention to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Treas- ury’s largest bureau. We’ll defer the bulk of our questions relating to the IRS until that hearing. The non-IRS portion of the Department’s budget constitutes over $1.1 billion, supporting many critical activities in the central pro- grams we’ll concentrate on today. The Department plays a pivotal role in the global economy, and as an ambassador for the Nation’s economic and financial institu- tions. In fulfilling the mission, Treasury promotes economic pros- perity, and ensures the financial security of our Nation. Treasury also administers the world’s largest collection system, over $2 trillion a year. In addition, Treasury supports financial in- stitutions in generating community development, and leads Gov- ernment efforts in the area of financial intelligence. I’m pleased that for fiscal year 2008, we were able to provide ad- ditional funds for the Department to address several important needs. The funds will further support the Department’s efforts to combat terrorism, through implementing economic sanctions, and gathering and analyzing financial intelligence. (1) 2 For fiscal year 2009, the budget request for Treasury is $12.47 billion, an increase of $461.6 million, or 3.8 percent. Excluding IRS, the request for the remainder is $1.11 billion. This represents a net decrease of $7.5 million over fiscal year 2008, overall reduction of less than 1 percent. This would appear to be a very restrained budget for the non-IRS portion of the Department, however, the top line includes a 70 percent decrease from fiscal year 2008 funding level for the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI), commonly known as CDFI. Holding CDFI funding at the fiscal year 2008 level, the fiscal year 2009 President’s budget reflect a $57.9 million, or 5.2 percent increase for the non-IRS portion of the Treasury Department. I’m concerned about this proposed cut in CDFI, which we will discuss later, because I believe that the infusion of capital to these institu- tions can help many distressed communities, and low-income indi- viduals, who are facing the economic downturn, with more severity than most. I think it’s clear that adequate funding for CDFI is critically im- portant. For the Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence (TFI), in- cluding Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, known as FinCEN, the budget requests $153 million for fiscal year 2009, compared to $142.6 million last year, an increase of over $10 mil- lion. I’m pleased to see Treasury continues to emphasize strategies to counterterrorist financing and money laundering. Beyond the Treasury Department, I also want to talk for a few minutes with the Secretary about broader economic issues. I know you’ve faced that already once today, so you’ve undoubtedly been prepared for this by my colleagues in the House. I appreciate your insights on the current housing crisis and the state of the economy, and we’ll have a few questions along those lines. I look forward to discussing them with you. At this point, since Senator Brownback has not arrived, I would like to turn the floor over to the Secretary, and Mr. Secretary, you may proceed with your remarks. Secretary PAULSON. Thank you, Senator Durbin—there we go. Senator DURBIN. Thank you. Secretary PAULSON. That’s always the most difficult part of the hearings, turning on the microphone. But, thank you very much for your remarks, and for your sup- port of the Treasury. I very much appreciate the opportunity to dis- cuss the Treasury Department’s proposed fiscal year 2009 budget. Our budget request reflects the Department’s continued commit- ment to promoting a healthy U.S. economy, fiscal discipline, and national security. The Department has broad responsibility in Fed- eral cash management, tax administration, and plays an integral role in combating terrorism, terrorist financing, and advocating the integrity of the U.S. and global financial systems. Our spending priorities for the 2009 fiscal year fall into six main categories. I’ll briefly